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Everything seems to taste better on the grill. Steaks and burgers are as classic as the hot dog, chicken is a favorite standard, and ribs are a long process that’s worth every minute. Shrimp, however, is one of the quickest delicacies to prepare, and has a relatively short commitment. Shrimp on the barbie is as classic as it gets. The grill brings out a very special flavor, and when the marinate is just right, these flavors all marry in a pretty spectacular way.

The cooking time for shrimp is only about seven minutes, a very wonderfully short amount of time for any meal. This means that shrimp just might have the market cornered for their level of return for the investment. The secret, then, is in the marinade, since the cooking time is easy and reasonable.

The marinading process, likewise, isn’t very complex, just a bit time-consuming. With this, it’s going to be an addictive habit to experiment with the flavors. A short cooking time means that you can play around a lot with ingredients, and there’s little time lost, because almost anything is going to be pretty delicious. Barbecue sauce is one possibility, and for that there’s no preparation. Brush it on before putting it on the grill, again, for about 7 minutes on a medium to medium high flame, turning halfway through.

Other favorite ingredients, and here is where it gets very juicy, are butter, oil, garlic, lemon juice, as well as basil and parsley. Try melting butter and mixing with olive oil. Add a little lemon juice, and a generous amount of crushed garlic, and let the shrimp soak in this mixture for at least two hours. These are some of the finest flavors that shrimp connoisseurs love, and it’s fun to experiment with marinading times.

The cooking process here, is also the same. 7 minutes, and turn once halfway through. The shrimp are done when the color of the meat starts to change. Fantastic and reliable!

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Would you like some BBQ ribs, but don’t have a barbecue? Here’s how to make BBQ ribs in the oven, so that the ribs will be moist and tender, and slip off the bone.

To make enough for six people, you’ll need about four pounds of ribs, three quarters of a cup of light brown sugar, a tablespoon of paprika, a tablespoon of garlic powder, a half teaspoon of ground red pepper, a teaspoon of hickory smoke salt, and two cups of the brand of BBQ sauce you like the best. Some people may have trouble finding the hickory smoke salt, and if that’s the case, then it’s possible to substitute smoked paprika or to use liquid smoke, which you may brush on.

First, preheat the oven to three hundred degrees Fahrenheit. Next, peel away the membrane that covers the bony part of the rib. You can use a spoon or the tips of sheers, working the tools into the center of the membrane, then slide it back and forth and create a pocket, a space large enough to slide in your thumbs and then pull the membrane away from the center and out to the ends of the ribs.

You will then want to mix the sugar, paprika, garlic powder, and ground red pepper together in order to make the rub. If you prefer the rub to be less spicy, it’s possible to omit the ground red pepper. After it’s mixed, the rub should then be applied on all sides of the ribs.

Next, place the ribs on two sheets of foil, the shining side out and the meat side down. Place two more sheets of foil on top of the ribs and then roll up and crimp the edges, with the edges facing upwards, in order to create a foil container. Take the foil and ribs and place them on a baking sheet, where you will bake them for up two or two and a half hours, or at least until the meat begins to pull away from the ends of the bone. At that point, take the ribs out of the oven and heat the broiler.

Open up the foil container and cut the ribs into serving portions, about two or three ribs each. Place these portions onto a broiler pan with the bony side facing upwards. Now it’s time to brush on the sauce, then broil for a minute or two until the sauce is cooked on and bubbling. Flip the ribs over and repeat this procedure on the other side. If you truly miss the grilling aspect of BBQ ribs, you can use a grill, if you have one, to cook on the sauce.

If you’ve followed these directions, you should have some extremely tasty BBQ ribs without the BBQ!

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Barbecue ribs have an appeal that never gets old. The taste is something so exquisite that there are people who specialize in turning a Sunday dinner into a masterpiece. Slow cooked ribs on a grill large enough to accommodate the meat have a kind of magic that speaks to something kind of primal, and has come to mean the good life for many food lovers. However, there are times when you might not have the set up or the time to prepare these in the proper way. That doesn’t mean they’re not an option, because there are some short cuts, and boiling is the technique that will save the most time.

The common wisdom on ribs is that boiling shouldn’t even enter into the picture. While this might be true for the more expensive varieties, where you want the slow cooking to bring out their true flavors, there’s no reason not to enjoy them if you’re in the mood. You can prepare them in your very own oven, or you can also opt to have your outdoor grill close at hand for a rather scrumptious finishing touch.

Boiling the ribs for 45 minutes is the general rule. This is the correct amount of time to cook the meat through so that it’s safe for eating. This method will mean losing some of the flavor in the meat, but one can certainly make up for that with a generous amount of sauce.

For cooking in the oven, marinate the boiled ribs for at least ten to twenty minutes so that the sauce has a chance to get into the meat. Then put the ribs in a pan and cook at 300 degrees for at least an hour. Alternately, you can put them to broil for seven minutes on each side, and check to make sure the meat is cooked through before serving. With this method, you can also put them on the grill for seven minutes on each side to give them a rather spectacular charred flavor that will help to marry the marinade with the meat.

There are plenty of options here, and if time-saving is the goal, then these methods will save an hour or two of cooking time. Feel free to experiment with marinade times, and as you get familiar with how the ribs cook, you’ll want to start trying different methods, and perhaps eventually move into slow-cooking.

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First of all, pick your location; you’ll want your barbecue to be somewhat close to the house, but not under the eves. Plus, make sure it’s close to the door to the kitchen, you’ll be making many trips back and forth, so the closer to the kitchen the better.

Once you’ve selected the perfect location for your barbeque gill, begin to prepare a base. A brick barbecue will need a solid base due to the heaviness of all the bricks. Pavers laid on a level bed of sand is an adequate base, but to create even a better solid base, dig down and remove the dirt from an area approximately 4 feet by 4 feet by 4″ deep. Then install several 6 inch wooden forms along the inside of the hole.

Mix a concrete cement compound that you’ll will only need to add water to and one that can be mixed in a wheelbarrow. Pour 3 inches of the cement compound into your prepared area, then lay 3 pieces of 3 1/2 feet long rebar 12 inches away from each other, then cover the rebar with 3 more inches of cement and smooth the base; it’s a good idea, while you smooth the base, to create a slight slope, 1/2 inch from front to back so rainwater will run off the foundation. Let that set for 2 days. In those 2 days, head to your local barbeque supply store and buy a fire pan, barbecue grills, and order your bricks to be delivered.

In your barbeque design, you should consider a comfortable height, usually 30″ from the ground for the grill and the fire box needs to be 4 to 5 inches below. Plus, you’ll need to include one to two shelves that are about 16″ wide so you can keep your cooking paraphernalia next to the grill. When picking the brick, try to choose a pattern that minimizes the number of bricks you’ll need to cut. But, no matter what the pattern, you’ll have to cut some bricks.

Now, it’s time to get down to building your barbeque: lay out the first courses of bricks dry, don’t use mortar, to get the barbeque placed correctly on the concrete base. When you have the bricks were you want them, draw a line around the bricks for positioning. You’ll notice that once you pull the bricks back up, they have drawn up moisture from your base, you’ll need to hose down those bricks and wait a day. You want to make sure your brick surface is completely dry.

Next, make a mortar compound by mixing 1 part cement, 1/4 part hydrated lime and 3 parts masonry sand; mix with enough water to get a consistency of soft mud. Lay your first course of bricks in a row of mortar, make sure that the mortar stays inside your outline. Put 1/2″ of mortar between adjacent bricks and make sure the first course is level. Continue building up your barbecue walls by working up at the corners for 3 to 4 courses, then fill in the walls between the corners. Lay 1/2 inch mortar bed for each course and apply enough mortar to one end of each brick so the gap will also be 1/2″. Set each brick onto the mortar bed and tap it into place with the handle of your trowel. Scrape any excess mortar off the bricks as you work your way up the walls. Insert 3 or 4 pieces of rebar in-between the courses at the proper design height to hold the firebox and cooking grills.

Always check that your brick courses are level and the walls are plumb. To give your mortar a nice concave shape, use a short piece of 5/8 inch pipe and run it over the mortar joints, both horizontally and vertically. Finish the top with a row of solid bricks, then, and this is the most important, stand back and admire your new brick barbecue.

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Making BBQ ribs can be a fairly complex proposition, but the good news is that if you’re decided, then it’s one that’s absolutely worth every step of the process. Ribs that are prepared well and properly can be enormously rewarding, and are one of those foods that people never get tired of. They also seem to invite their own band of fanatics, where you’ll find someone in every crowd that knows a lot about how they’re supposed to be. This means that you’re cooking for a very discerning clientele, but it’s also pretty straightforward, if you follow all the steps.

Remove the silver skin on the bottom, and spark up the grill! You can actually roast them indoors as well, but the best kind of oven is one that burns wood, so outdoor grills are usually used instead. It’s important to cook with wood, at a very low heat, about 250 degrees, so you may need to experiment a bit with your grill to get the temperature right. Marinades and sauces are all spectacular touches, but with sauce, wait until the last steps.

Wrap the ribs in foil, and cook over the low heat, being careful not to get the meat too close to the heat source. This cooks the meat slowly, until it starts to become like jell-o, and that’s when the flavors start to really shine, and this makes ribs that will fall off the bone. Turn them occasionally, and check to see that the interior temperature isn’t exceeding 250 degrees, and allow them to cook for a couple of hours. When they start to give weight when you lift them in the center, they’re almost done.

At this point, apply the sauce, and turn up the heat to medium. Give them another spell on the grill, without the foil, for about ten minutes on each side. The interior should be about 250 degrees by now, and the meat should not be pink, and cooked through. Serve hot, and start making plans for your next bbq creation.

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Food on the grill tastes better, and that goes for almost anything. For some people, it’s simply the association with the smell of the grill that instantly adds a burst of flavor, because it recalls memories of summer days gone by. But there are some foods that are enhanced in a most glorious way when they are barbecued, and ribs are perhaps closest to the top of that list. There are many different kinds of ribs, and many different ways of preparing them, so here are some general guidelines to get started to make the perfect meal for an outdoor gathering.

Baby back ribs are the best choice for these, because this involves slow cooking, and they take the heat the fastest. Pork and beef ribs, and beef short ribs are also great options, but you’ll need to adjust the cooking time. Prepare the sauce about an hour or two ahead of time, and this can be a store bought sauce, or making one of your own. Vinegar-based tomato sauces are by far the preferred choice, and they can have any number of ingredients, from molasses to honey, garlic and ginger, and don’t forget about the great dexterity of plain old salt and pepper. There are those, too, who prefer a rub over a sauce, so keep your options open and be inventive, because this is a time to shine.

The secret to the cooking is in low heat over a long period of time. Cooking on charcoal will work, but wood gives a much better flavor. If at all possible, avoid the charcoal fluid approach, because with ribs, it’s about the flavor of the meat. Wrap the ribs in foil and cook over indirect heat for at least an hour and a half. The temperature should be at right around 200 degrees, and you’ll know the meat is close to done when a fork will go through it easily. That means they’ll be falling tenderly off the bone when eaten. Now is the time to add the sauce, which is a kind of final touch. Cook in the foil for another 20 minutes, until the interior temperature of the meat is also 200 degrees. Prepare to enjoy. Repeat whenever necessary.

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There’s nothing like the taste of bbq chicken on a summer night. For that matter, it’s a taste that can perk up those cold winter nights as well. It’s not a difficult thing to learn how to make, either, with some pretty simple instructions for basic cooking, and an infinite number of variations. As you start to learn how good the results can be with even the simplest of recipes, you can move into more experimental methods of preparing the chicken, and even try your hand at making your own barbecue sauce.

The most fool-proof method for bbq chicken, in eliminating any risk of undercooked food, is to boil it ahead of time. Ten minutes is enough to get the meat prepared for the grill, but twenty minutes is the general rule for avoiding food-borne illness. As it boils, strain off excess fat that floats to the top of the surface, and when it gets close to done, fire up the grill.

A medium to medium-high heat is best for grilling chicken, and, as long as its boiled well, this step is really a finishing touch. It’s also the place where all the magic happens. Take the boiled chicken and brush both sides thoroughly with the sauce, and put it on the fire. Ten minutes, with turning every few minutes, is enough time to give it a smoky taste, and lock in the flavors of the sauce.

That’s the recipe at its most basic, but there are plenty of ways of adding new touches. Once you get used to how chicken cooks on the grill, you can try doing away with the boiling altogether. Marinate the chicken the night before, in a store-bought sauce, or one you make yourself. Tomato, vinegar, garlic, and spices all work together in different combinations to make a pretty flavorful meal. When cooking chicken raw, it needs a lot more time, and a lot more care to make sure the meat is cooked through and not burned.

You can also try baking it ahead of time, rather than boiling, and putting on the finishing touches on a grill set to high heat. As long as it’s cooked through, so the meat is not pink, your experiments will be well-received by hungry friends and family.

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Corn on the cob is an elemental food, and it’s one whose appeal spreads far and wide. It conjures up plenty of mythical ideas and notions in just about every culture that has a history with corn. In many places, and Mexico in particular, it has an iconic presence, being one of the main staple foods. Anyone who’s spent some time in that country, or among Mexican culture anywhere, will probably have some memories of eating corn on the cob prepared on the grill. It’s absolutely delicious, and here is one great way to do it.

The most traditional way isto begin by soaking the corn, husk, silk, and all, in hot water for at least half an hour. This will begin the cooking process, preparing the husk for the heat, so that it cooks with the added moisture that will help steam it.

grilling at a street fair. photo from Ed Yourdon

Take the corn out of the water, and remove the corn silk and the husk. Take a few pieces o

f husk, and rewrap around the corncob, and place this directly on t

he grill. Cook for approximately half an hour. That’s the right amount of time to allow the steam to work in the husk, and for the meat to soften just enough so that it’s juicy and still very firm.

For an added touch, and a spark of authenticity, take off the husk and place the corn directly on the grill for about five minutes toward the end. This will give it a nice charred color, and also add a very delightful flavor.

You can add a mix of salt and butter to the husk and then wrap the cooked corn again, so that the husk works as a kind of flavor jacket. You can also add some chili powder and lime juice for some more complex flavors, and some people will insist that mayonnaise is a better condiment than butter. Try them all, and let your mouth water while you taste something that’s popular all over the Americas.

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Of all the different kinds of foods that can be prepared on the barbecue, steak is very likely the most elemental of all of these. For many people, this is the perfect meat, and all of its different cuts add more dimensions to its perfection. When it comes to grilling, there are few fanatics of outdoor cooking who will not rave over a steak that’s cooked perfectly. It’s the world cup of the barbecue, and it’s not as difficult as one might think.

There are many different methods to cooking a steak, and plenty of variations that are all worth trying. This one, however, is an ideal way to begin the lifelong adventure in outdoor grilling, making a delectable cut of beef, and still leaving open enough options to add your own touches. The trick to steak, as is true of most any meat, is that it needs to be cooked whole. That means unbroken, and no testing with a fork to see if it’s done. Again, it sounds trickier than it is, but it might take a little bit of experimenting. Most things worthwhile do take some practice rounds before getting into the realm of perfection.

Begin, then, with a cut of meat that is not top of the line. If you’re having a major party next weekend, and you’re looking to impress with sirloin, try this ahead of time so that you’re sure to dazzle.

Get the grill good and hot, somewhere between medium-high and high is the perfect temperature. Then, cook the meat on both sides, turning it three times during the cooking process. Sounds easy, and it is. The tricky part is knowing the right amount of time. Ten minutes is about right for most cuts of meat, a little longer for well done, and a bit shorter for rare. Cook for a few minutes, flip it over, and cook again. When you flip the next time, go against the grain of the previous position to get the perfect criss-cross grill marks.

During this process, test the meat by pressing the center with your finger. Very soft means raw or rare, a bit firm is medium, and very firm is well-done. That’s not nearly as complicated as it seems, but it does take practice. When you’re preparing for the last turn, put the seasoning on, if you’re using seasoning. Salt and pepper are really the perfect accompaniments, to that the real flavors of the meat have a chance to shine. Enjoy!

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There’s really nothing in the world to compare to a gorgeous meal cooked on the barbecue. A perfect steak is one where all the flavors merge together, the meat isn’t tough, and the aroma is a brilliant combination of natural flavors touched with a bit of marinade and smoke. Hamburgers are juicy and chicken is the stuff that can bring back childhood memories. It’s a very tricky and complex art, but it’s also very easy, and fun, to learn. Learning how to barbecue can be a great skill to have, and one that is pretty useful for obvious reasons.

Assuming that you’re cooking with coals, then, you begin by arranging them in a pyramid on the grill. The pyramid shape is the most useful in barbecue grilling, because the high point will have the most heat, and you can move the meat around to lower cooking temperatures very easily during the whole process. Pour the fluid directly onto the coals evenly, and let it soak in for a few moments. When you light it, it shouldn’t immediately burst into flame, but smolder instead. When the coals are starting to turn from black to grey, it’s time to put the meat on.

There are an infinite number of ways to cook anything, and with grilling, there are even more variations. It’s important, then, to maintain a spirit of improvisation as you learn how your grill reacts best with the meat served. You can prepare the meat ahead of time by soaking it in a marinade of your choice. Generally speaking, it’s best to thaw it completely ahead of time, being cautious to follow the usual health regulations.

For steaks, it’s recommended to cook them at the hot point if they’re extra thin, or at medium-high heat for the standard thickness of about 1 1/2 inches. Cook for five minutes on each side, and test by sticking a fork in the center. If there’s a lot of juice, it’s ready, but if it’s still pretty bloody, cook a bit longer. Hamburgers are also prepared for approximately the same amount of time, but chicken is much longer, from 25-30 minutes.

Variation in everything is the key, and you’ll find that some meats are better when cooked longer, and some things, like vegetables, often don’t need much more than a minute or two to get that barbecue flair. Experiment, and be ready to share your tests with your friends and family!

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